Jack Kerouac Quotes

I think the idea of art kills creativity.

In art, rebellion is consummated and perpetuated in the act of real creation, not in criticism or commentary.

Nothing has a more sinister effect on art than the artist's desire to prove that he's good. The terrible temptation of idealism!

All art is based on non-conformity.

Ah, good taste! What a dreadful thing! Taste is the enemy of creativeness.

The only enemy of art is taste.

An artist in my view is always afraid of extremists; he is always afraid of those who claim to have found the ultimate solution to any question.

While appropriation art is critical to art, it's an ambiguous art form in the world of the Supreme Court.

I don't care about my "impact" - I only care about the theater as an art form and criticism as an act of writing.

An artist must forget painting when he paints. That's the only way he will do original work.

What you really have to do, if you want to be creative, is to unlearn all the teasing and censoring that you've experienced throughout your life. If you are truly a creative person, you know that feeling insecure and lonely is par for the course. You can't have it both ways: You can't be creative and conform, too. You have to recognize that what makes you different also makes you creative.

Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.

A man is entitled to draw things in his own style. I didn't hurt Superman. I made him powerful. I admire Superman, but I've got to do my own style.

Commit to finding the true nature of art. Go for that thing no one can teach you.

Art that submits to orthodoxy, to even the soundest doctrines, but lacks imagination and deep self-expression is lost leaving only the craftsmanship.

As for borrowing Mr. Whistler's ideas about art, the only thoroughly original ideas I have heard him express have had reference to his own superiority as a painter over painters greater than himself.

I don't think there's anything really wrong with influence because I think that one can use another man's art as material either literally or just implying that they're doing that, without it representing a lack of a point of view.

Sure, I can talk like you, but I choose not to, It's like an art, you know? Picasso had to prove to the world he could paint the right way, before he goes putting both eyes on the side of a face... See if you paint wrong because that's the best you can do, you just a chump. But you do it because you want to? Then you're an artist...You can take that to the grave and dig it up when you need it.

I think that just the nature of art education in schools, it's about packs, you know? Like, we're young wolves running together, creating a consensus. And consensus is antithetical to the art process.

The creator gives no heed to the critic unless he becomes a barren inventor.

Individuality of expression is the beginning and end of all art.

The only people who get paid what they're worth are people who don't follow the instruction book, who create art, who are innovative, who work without a map.

My trade and my art is living. He who forbids me to speak about it according to my sense, experience, and practice, let him orderthe architect to speak of buildings not according to himself but according to his neighbor; according to another man's knowledge, not according to his own.

The moment that an artist takes notice of what other people want, and tries to supply the demand, he ceases to be an artist.

It's time to stop complying with the system and draw your own map. Stop settling for what's good enough and start creating art that matters.